So here’s the thing: I’m only in my early twenties and I swear some of my biggest dreams just came true. 3 letters: N-Y-C. And that wasn’t even the best part! Now before I get into all the wonderful details, I’ll start off by telling you how I got to land the golden-ticket to this dream come true. A couple months ago I received a Facebook notification from a fellow HerCampus member asking if anyone was interested in travelling to New York City for a weekend to partake in the HerCampus National Intercollegiate Conference. The conference was to be held over the course of two days and it would be jam-packed with fun activities, inspiring guest speakers and seminars (sounds boring, but trust me it was worth it!). Plus I would have the opportunity to roam NYC, which I had never done before. I usually don’t consider myself to be the most adventurous person out there, but hey! I couldn’t miss the opportunity to spend a couple hundred dollars in exchange visit the city where Audrey Hepburn had breakfast at Tiffany’s, possible spotting area for Ansel Elgort (TFIOS), and of course the place of my dreams. So I accepted and put my name on the list of people who wanted to participate. Not only was I nervous and excited at the same time to visit a city I’ve never been before and possibly cross paths with a famous actor (*cough**cough* James Franco cough**cough*), but I would also get the chance to meet my fellow HerCampus team and listen in on wonderful seminars and speakers such as Carley Roney, the CEO of the XO Group Inc., and the Publisher and Chief Financial Officer of Town & Country magazine, Jennifer Levene Bruno.
Now let me first say a few words on Carley Roney. A woman, in my opinion, who did an excellent job to open up the day by pushing us to work our hardest, strive for the most, and succeed at whatever we want to do in life… and to reassure us that it’s ok to make mistakes, because that’s how we learn. She was the most awe-inspiring woman I have ever had the chance to be in the same room with. She was such a strong, spontaneous, and successful woman, that I think most of the ladies (don’t worry I didn’t forget you handsome men ;) could agree upon. Roney had a way with making us feel like we can achieve whatever we wanted, if we were willing to work hard at it. One thing she told us that stuck with me the most was this: “once you start a company, it’s like having a child. It never leaves you.” No but seriously guys, words of wisdom. She also told us to “focus on who you are, who you want to be, and all the fun stuff will follow”. I truly believe this, and I think that those are the words that most of us needed to hear, to reassure us, and to push us in the right, and even sometimes wrong directions, to a wonderful and adventurous future.
Carley Roney
Fellow HerCampus members from the uOttawa chapters and me J xox
On top of the wonderful speakers, we were treated to super foods throughout the day, such as continental breakfast and a generous spread from our friends at Chipotle, which BTW was absolutely fantastic – it kept everyone alert and their tummies happy. Everything you could ask for in a conference, we got it, thanks to the HerCampus National ladies.
Our wonderful breakfast the morning of the conference xo
The conference was held at the Faculty House at Columbia University, and every team member had the option to choose between various seminars to sit in on. One of my greatest ambitions is to become a successful screenwriter like Wes Anderson (*mumbling with excitement*), and being a Communications and English major, I was more inclined to attend the seminar, How to Make your Start-up a Success: Female Entrepreneurs Share their Stories.
We were greeted by Morgan First, Co-founder of Second Glass; Rebecca Kantar, Founder & CEO of BrightCo; Alanna Gregory, Founder and CEO of VIVE; and Vanessa Liu, COO of Trigger Media Group. Most of the female entrepreneurs in this panel began by discussing why they started their own business, and how much of a change and journey it has been for them to succeed and create something from scratch. I found it to be incredibly inspiring that Rebecca Kantar dropped out of Harvard to pursue her dreams by taking a risk and putting her career on the line to start a non-profit organization, BrightCo. BrightCo is a cool organization that helps startup companies and regular-freds (like myself, and I’m sure many of you bright and soon-to-be-successful ladies and gents out there), get their say in the world.
These outstanding women taught us to take advantage of our youth, not to worry about a prestigious life style, but instead aim to be smart and healthy. And with all of that under your belt, you will be wiser and be able to make smarter and healthier choices to better your career path. Go out there and find a co-worker with a different point of view and a different skill set to balance one another. Challenge one another every once in a while to keep the ideas moving and help grow your company.
First panel: (from left to right) Morgan First, Rebecca Kantar, Vanessa Liu, Alanna Gregory, and Stephanie Kaplan (Co-founder, CEO, and editor in chief of HerCampus)
As the first seminar came to a close, every young entrepreneur from the first panel, rapidly rushed into the sponsor area to take selfies and gain raffle tickets in order to win prizes at the end of the day. I myself was getting into the fun and excitement by taking pictures with sponsors and tweeting and instagraming the whole time:
My uOttawa Hercampus girls and I doing a mini photoshoot with our friends at Intel xo
After one last selfie, I rushed into the second room ready to find a seat for the second panel: Climbing the Ladder: Journalism Jobs Later On. We were greeted by the lovely Raakhee Mirchandani, Managing Editor of Features, Fashion, and Gossip for the NY Daily News; Emma Barker, Sex & Relationships Editor for Cosmopolitan.com; Lea Palmieri, Video Producer for OKMagazine.com; and Verena von Pfetten, Executive Digital Editor for Lucky Magazine.
Each woman told her story on how she made it in the journalism world, and surprisingly enough, often it was by chance. For example, Verena von Pfetten started with an internship and worked her way up the ladder to becoming executive digital editor for Lucky Magazine. These women showed that some independence, courage, and taking risk taking can possibly help you land you your future career.
Sometimes you need to take risks to make things happen and move forward.
Second Panel (from left to right): Verena von Pfetten, Emma Barker, Lea Palmieri, and Raakhee Mirchandani
After the first two panels we were greeted with a hearty buffet-styled lunch from Chipotle. We were each allowed to create our own burrito or salad bowl (awesome!):
My burrito bowl xoxo
Finally, as we were finishing our lunches, we were greeted by Jennifer Levene Bruno, Publisher and CFO of Town & Country magazine. She told us her journey from working at Glamour magazine to landing the job as Publisher of Town & Country. She was witty, fun, and interactive with her videos showing us truly how passionate she was about her job. And that’s the dream: to be feverishly in love with what you do for a living – I hope to experience that one day! Jennifer was able to give her points on how print will prevail, which really hit home! Although we’re living in a modern and digital world, we’re still very tactile and having a magazine to physically hold is something that we will always want in our lives.
She gave us tips on how to write a successful email by making it personal and easy, and to build a report in first couple of sentences. Not to mention you must email it early enough in the day to catch the person you’re trying to reach in order to get an immediate response or for them to even look at it. She told us to “become leaders, think differently, challenge yourself, and to be the most creative that you can be.”
Jennifer Levene Bruno
For the third and final panel of the day, I chose to sit in on Chapter PR: Plan the Coolest Events On Campus, who’s guest speaker was Allison Day, Account Executive for HerCampus Media. I have to say that Allison was such a sweet woman, and helped us brainstorm cool ideas (ergo the name of the panel) to help endorse and get events moving on campus. Which I’m sure most of you cool-cats will get to see the progress once school starts up again!
ANNNNNNND well that kind of sums up (in a long way, I know) my wonderful trip to New York City. I would definitely give it a 12/10 result for the conference. I mean we took selfies with fellow members (and friends), ate super foods to keep us pumped and energized, and of course, we were given a generous goodie bag filled with great take away gifts from jewelry to make up, books, and Luna bars! I would definitely recommend the conference to any collegiate in a heartbeat! The amount of great advice and tips given by the speakers were priceless and definitely worth the trip (trust me I know… driving from Ottawa, Ontario to New York, New York, was a long one but well worth the wait). If given the opportunity to attend the following year, I wouldn’t hesitate, and I sure hope to see new faces next year… until then XOXO.
– Madison
Photo Credits: Personal photos for HC uOttawa writer Madison Von Eicken Bursey